BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand will import the first doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from Asia after Europe applies export controls, the country’s health minister said on Thursday.
The European Union (EU) last week imposed restrictions on the export of vaccines from the block until March to ensure it will secure the supplies it bought in advance, including shots from AstraZeneca Plc.
Thailand will continue to import the first 50,000 of 150,000 ‘early doses’ of the AstraZeneca vaccine later this month, just not from Europe as previously planned, said Anutin Charnvirakul, Minister of Public Health.
“The producer will obtain the vaccine from another supply chain outside the EU,” Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters.
“It will come from somewhere in Asia,” he said without elaborating, as he said there was a risk of interventions to protect supplies.
South Korea and India are among the countries in Asia that currently manufacture the AstraZeneca vaccine.
China, Sinovac Biotech Ltd, is also delivering the first 200,000 of two million doses of its vaccine that Thailand ordered by the end of February, Anutin added.
Thailand’s vaccine strategy is mostly based on AstraZeneca vaccines being manufactured by local manufacturer Siam Bioscience, which is owned by the King of Thailand, Maha Vajiralongkorn.
The 26 million doses manufactured by the firm will be used for vaccinations in June. Thailand plans to vaccinate people with five million doses from that stage, Anutin said.
Thailand has ordered 35 million more vaccine doses from AstraZeneca, but Anutin said on Thursday that a contract for the volume had not been signed.
Thailand reported 809 new cases of coronavirus and no additional deaths earlier Thursday, the COVID-19 task force said.
The new infections increased the total to 22,058, with the deaths still being 79.
(Reported by Patpicha Tanakasempipat and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Ed Davies)